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ll{ntniMni!'iiMj!i;miniinfi!i|! 


GIFT  or 


THE   MASTER'S   FRIENDSHIPS 


DE.  J.  K.  MILLEE'S    BOOKS 

A  Heaet  Garden 

Lesson  of  Love 

Bethlehem  to  Olivet 

Making  the  Most  of  Life 

Building  of  Character 

Ministry  of  Comfort 

Come  ye  Apart 

Morning  Thoughts 

Dr.  Miller's  Year  Book 

Personal  Friendships  of 

Evening  Thoughts 

Jesus 

Every  Day  op  Life 

Silent  Times 

Finding  the  Way 

Story  of  a  Busy  Life 

For  the  Best  Things 

Strength  and  Beauty 

Gate  Beautiful 

Things  to  Live  for 

Glimpses  through  Life's 

Upper  Currents 

Windows 

When  the  Song  Begins 

Go  Forward 

While  We  May 

Golden  Gate  of  Prayer 

Wider  Life 

Hidden  Life 

Young  People's  Problems 

Joy  of  Service 

BOOKLETS                              1 

Beauty  of  Kindness 

Marriage  Altar 

Blessing  of  Cheerfulness 

Mary  of  Bethany 

By  the  Still  Waters 

Master's  Friendships 

Christmas  Making 

Secret  of  Gladness 

Curb  for  Care 

Secrets  of  Happy  Home 

Face  of  the  Master 

Life 

Gentle  Heart 

Summer  Gathering 

Girls  ;  Faults  and  Ideals 

To-day  and  To-morrow 

Glimpses  of  the  Heavenly 

Transfigured  Life 

Life 

Turning  Northward 

How?    When?    Where? 

Unto  the  Hills 

In  Perfect  Peace 

Young  Men;   Faults  and 

Inner  Life 

Ideals 

Loving  my  Neighbor 

THOMAS  Y.  CKOWELL  &  COMPANY 

'•it  .  • 


Jt-SUS    LOVED    MARTHA,    AND    HER    SISTER,    AND    LAZARUS. 


THE     MASTERS 
FRIENDSHIPS 


BY 


J.   R.   MILLER 

Author  of  ^^  Making  the  Most  of  Life ^'  etc. 


*'  Ye  are  my  friends  " 


NEW  YORK 

THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &  CO. 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1909  and  19 10, 
By  Thomas  Y.  Crowell  &  Co. 


•   J 


THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS,  CAMBRIDGE,  U.  S.  A. 


THE  need  of  friendship  is  the  deepest 
need  of  life.  Every  heart  cries  out  for 
it.  Perhaps  no  shortcoming  in  good  lives  is 
so  common  as  the  failure  to  be  a  friend  to 
those  about  us.  Jesus  Christ  gave  us  the 
pattern  for  all  beautiful  life,  but  in  nothing  did 
he  show  us  more  plainly  and  more  urgently  the 
way  to  live  than  in  his  wonderful  friendliness 
to  man.  We  begin  to  be  like  Christ  only 
when  we  begin  to  be  a  friend  to  every  one. 

J.  R.  M. 

Philadelphia,  U.  S.  A. 


"  Behold  him  now  where  he  comes  ! 

Not  the  Christ  of  our  subtile  creeds^ 
But  the  light  of  our  hearts^  of  our  homeSy 

Of  our  hopes ^  our  prayers^  our  needs. 
The  Brother  of  want  and  blame ^ 
The  Lover  of  women  and  men  J' 


THE      MAST  E  R'S 
FRIENDSHIPS 

^ESUS  was  the  friendliest 
man  who  ever  lived  in  this 
world.  Many  human  friend- 
ships are  narrow,  exclusive, 
selfish.  Toward  a  few  people  they  are 
intense,  devoted,  loyal,  self-denying,  won- 
drously  beautiful,  but  all  the  rest  of  the 
race  they  shut  out.  They  have  no 
thought  of  extending  the  privileges  and 
blessings  of  their  friendship  beyond  a 
limited  circle.  Christ's  friendship  was 
broad,  generous,  unselfish.  He  wished  all 
men  to  accept  it  and  to  be  helped  by  it. 

One  of  the  ancients  said  that  his  aim 
was  to  have  his  house  by  the  side  of  the 
road  and  to  be  a  friend  to  man.     It  was 


s'^'We' masTer^s  friendships 

thus  that  Jesus  lived.  He  did  not  hide 
away  in  caves  or  mountains  so  that  men 
could  not  find  him.  He  lived  among 
people.  He  did  not  hedge  himself  about 
with  rules  and  conventionalities  to  pro- 
tect himself  from  men's  intrusions.  He 
was  always  accessible.  He  ever  sought  to 
be  among  men  and  to  reach  men.  He 
accepted  invitations  to  social  functions  at 
men's  homes  that  he  might  get  near  to 
those  who  needed  to  be  helped. 

He  was  not  the  friend  of  a  few  men, 
men  of  education,  of  culture,  of  refine- 
ment, of  rank,  of  power ;  he  was  as  easy 
of  approach  to  the  poor,  the  ignorant,  the 
rude,  the  obscure,  as  to  the  great,  the 
noble.  Jesus  loved  the  common  people, 
and  went  continually  among  them  because 
they  were  conscious  of  their  needs  and 
were  ready  to  accept  the  help  he  was  so 
eager  to  give.     Indeed,  almost  no  other 


THE    MASTER^S    FRIENDSHIPS      9 

kind  of  people  came  to  him  or  were 
numbered  among  his  friends.  The  proud 
and  exclusive  did  not  want  him.  To  the 
poor  the  gospel  was  preached.  Most  of 
his  disciples  were  peasants  or  lowly  ones. 
He  was  the  friend  of  men.  He  lived  by 
the  side  of  the  road  where  the  throngs 
were  ever  passing,  and  he  was  always 
helping  somebody. 

Jesus  was  friendly  not  only  to  the  good, 
the  respectable,  the  highly  moral,  but  to 
the  disreputable,  the  outcast,  the  fallen. 
One  of  the  charges  brought  against  him 
by  his  enemies  was  that  he  was  a  friend 
to  publicans  and  sinners.  To  them,  this 
was  grave  condemnation.  But  really  this 
was  part  of  the  glory  of  Christ's  life.  He 
said  he  had  come  to  seek  and  save  the 
lost,  that  is,  the  worst.  He  spoke  of  him- 
self as  a  physician.  Think  of  a  physician 
refusing  to  go  among  the  sick  or  to   be 


10    THE    MASTER'S    FRIENDSHIPS 

their  friend.  His  mission  is  to  those  who 
need  him.  A  minister  used  to  say,  *^The 
man  who  wants  me  is  the  man  I  want." 
That  is  what  Jesus  would  have  said.  He 
was  a  friend  to  men,  to  every  man.  He 
had  an  errand  to  every  man.  He  had 
something  he  wanted  to  give  to  every 
man,  a  blessing  he  wanted  to  bestow  on 
every  one.     He  loved  every  man. 

A  colony  has  been  suggested  from 
which  should  be  excluded  all  ignorant 
and  vulgar  people.  That  was  not  the 
thought  of  Christ  in  founding  his  church. 
He  was  not  on  the  quest  of  pleasure  and 
congeniality  when  he  went  among  men, 
but  of  helpfulness  to  others,  uplifting,  the 
taking  of  the  unworthy,  the  unholy,  the 
outcast,  and  making  them  children  of 
God.  Therefore  he  was  a  friend  to  the 
worst,  that  he  might  make  them  fit  to  be 
among  the  best. 


THE    MASTER^S    FRIENDSHIPS     ii 

We  must  remember  that  Jesus  Christ 
was  the  revelation  of  God  to  men.  God 
could  not  be  understood,  coming  as  a 
spirit,  could  not  get  near  to  men,  could 
not  make  himself  known  to  them ;  so  he 
came  in  human  form,  in  human  flesh, 
with  human  touch,  human  sympathy  and 
human  speech.  The  friendship  which 
Christ  offered  to  men  was  more  than 
human  friendship,  even  the  richest  and 
the  best;  it  was  divine  friendship,  with 
infinite  blessing  and  good  in  it. 

We  think  then  of  Jesus  as  a  friend  to 
men.  We  speak  of  friends  usually  as 
those  with  whom  we  form  close  and 
peculiar  relations.  Every  person  has  one 
or  two  or  more  personal  friends  who 
come  into  the  inner  circle,  who  become 
sharers  of  the  joys  and  sorrows,  the  cares, 
the  blessings  of  his  life.  We  tell  young 
people  that  they  must  be  most  careful  in 


12    THE    MASTER'S   FRIENDSHIPS 

choosing  their  friends.  They  must  not 
offer  themselves  on  every  altar.  They 
must  not  open  the  door  to  every  one  who 
knocks.  Friendship  is  a  most  sacred  re- 
lation. We  are  to  love  all  men  and  to 
seek  to  do  them  good,  but  we  are  not  to 
be  a  friend  to  all  in  the  higher  sense, 
involving  intimacy  and  trust. 

In  speaking  of  the  friendships  of  Christ, 
we  must  keep  in  mind  this  distinction. 
He  also  had  his  near  and  intimate  friends 
to  whom  he  revealed  his  whole  heart, 
whom  he  took  into  the  closest  relations. 
"  All  things  that  I  heard  from  my  Father 
I  have  made  known  unto  you,"  he  said 
to  his  disciples.  In  this  sense  he  was 
exclusive  in  his  friendships,  but  there  was 
a  sense  in  which  he  was  everybody's 
friend.  The  same  should  be  true  of  all 
who  are  the  friends  of  Christ.  We  are  to 
take  into  our  inner  heart  those  who  have 


THE    MASTER'S    FRIENDSHIPS     13 

entered  into  the  sacred  things  of  life  with 
us.  But  we  are  also  to  be,  like  our 
Master,  the  friend  of  every  one,  ready  to 
do  the  offices  of  friendship  to  all. 

As  we  read  the  story  of  our  Lord's  life, 
we  see  him  going  among  people  every- 
where with  heart  full  of  interest  and 
sympathy.  Most  men  are  kindly  dis- 
posed to  certain  persons,  and  are  willing 
to  do  what  they  can  to  help  them,  but 
they  select  those  to  whom  they  would 
thus  be  friendly,  and  then  close  their 
hearts  upon  others.  Christ  never  shut 
his  heart  on  any  one.  He  was  ready  to 
give  love  to  every  one. 

It  is  not  always  the  one  who  is  most 
congenial  who  most  needs  our  friendship. 
It  is  easy  to  be  a  friend  to  one  who  is 
agreeable,  who  is  bright  and  sunny,  who 
is  brilliant  and  entertaining  in  conver- 
sation, to   one   who   can  give  as   well  as 


14    THE    MASTER'S    FRIENDSHIPS 

receive.  We  all  enjoy  being  a  friend  to 
such  a  person.  It  lays  no  burden  upon 
us.  But  are  we  ready  and  willing  to  be 
a  friend  to  those  who  are  unattractive 
and  uncongenial,  even  disagreeable,  who 
have  nothing  to  give  to  us  in  return, 
who  have  only  needs,  cares  and  burdens 
to  share  with  us,  to  those  we  have  to  lift 
and  carry  ?  That  is  where  friendship  is 
tested.  We  never  know  when  we  say  to 
one,  "  I  will  be  your  friend,"  what  this 
promise  is  going  to  cost  us  before  life 
ends.  When  a  man  and  a  woman  at  the 
marriage  altar  pledge  their  troth,  promis- 
ing to  love  and  cherish  each  other  till 
death  shall  separate  them,  they  do  not 
know  what  they  are  promising. 

In  our  common  relations  in  life,  what 
is  called  friendship  does  not  always  mean 
willingness  to  be  a  friend  to  any  one  who 
needs  our   help,   whatever    the  cost  may 


,  !!,•  *  «     •••  9  *•  •        •  •     • 


THE   PEOPLE  WHO   FLOCKED   To   JESUS    WERE    POOR,    SICK,    OR    LAME,    OR    BLIND. 


THE    MASTER^S    FRIENDSHIPS     15 

be.  It  may,  indeed,  be  only  a  very 
narrow,  selfish,  unworthy  thing,  not 
ready  to  make  any  sacrifice,  to  bear  even 
the  smallest  burden,  to  endure  the  least 
suffering.  But  with  Christ,  friendship 
meant  the  acceptance  of  any  cost  of  self- 
denial,  pain,  sacrifice,  that  might  be  re- 
quired in  doing  love's  duties.  He  did 
not  choose  to  be  a  friend  only  to  those 
who  would  bring  delight  and  cheer  to 
him,  who  would  lighten  his  burdens,  at 
least  who  would  not  make  his  load 
heavier.  He  offered  to  become  a  friend 
to  men,  regardless  of  their  ability  to  serve 
him  or  to  be  a  comfort  to  him.  His 
offer  of  friendship  was  unlimited,  without 
reserve,  universal. 

The  people  who  flocked  to  Jesus  were 
chiefly  those  who  were  poor,  who  were 
sick  or  lame  or  blind,  or  had  some  weak- 
ness or  trouble.     Every  one  of  them,  even 


i6    THE    MASTER'S    FRIENDSHIPS 

the  unworthiest  or  the  most  disagreeable, 
found  in  him  a  friend.  He  was  gracious 
to  them  in  their  distress.  Trouble  w  s 
the  key  to  his  heart.  He  had  compassion 
on  grief  and  want  and  all  kinds  of  need. 
This  is  always  true  of  Christ.  He 
chooses  those  to  whom  he  will  be  a 
friend,  and  he  chooses  especially  those 
who  need  him.  Need  is  always  that 
which  attracts  his  attention. 

Mary  Lyon,  founder  of  Mt.  Holyoke 
Seminary,  used  to  say  to  the  girls  in  her 
graduating  classes,  *^  My  dear  girls,  when 
you  choose  your  fields  of  labor,  go  where 
nobody  else  is  willing  to  go."  One  tells 
of  a  young  man  who,  at  an  evening  com- 
pany, selects  for  his  special  attentions 
those  to  whom  no  other  one  is  showing 
attention.  He  is  brilliant  himself,  the 
one  most  sought  after  by  all  who  are 
present,   but  he   does   not   choose    to    be 


THE   MASTER'S    FRIENDSHIPS     17 

with  the  happy,  laughing  groups  all  the 
^ening.  Instead,  if  there  is  a  bashful 
young  fellow  in  the  company,  one  who 
cannot  make  himself  attractive  to  others, 
or  a  shy  girl  who  lacks  winsomeness  and 
is  not  sought  by  others,  these  are  the 
ones  to  whom  he  devotes  his  first  thought 
and  attention.  He  will  show  his  interest 
in  them,  introduce  them  to  others,  and 
stay  with  them  till  their  strangeness  of 
feeling  and  their  self-consciousness  are 
lost  in  happy  companionship.  That  is 
what  true  human  friendship  should  al- 
ways do  —  think  of  those  who  most  need 
to  be  helped  or  cheered.  If  there  are 
two  homes  to  which  you  may  go  some 
evening,  one  where  all  is  gladness  and 
song,  and  the  other  in  which  there  is 
sickness  or  sorrow,  or  over  which  some 
shadow  has  fallen,  it  is  easy  to  know  to 
which  home  Christ  would  go  if  he  were 


1 8    THE    MASTER^S    FRIENDSHIPS 

in  your  place.  Need  was  the  lodestone 
which  drew  him. 

Christ  had  his  special  friendships. 
While  he  built  his  house  by  the  side 
of  the  road  where  people  were  always 
thronging,  and  was  a  friend  to  all  men, 
eager  to  help  any  who  needed  help,  he 
craved,  just  as  every  noble  heart  craves, 
a  few  close  personal  friends,  to  whom  he 
gave  his  ajfFection,  in  whose  love  he  lived, 
with  whom  he  shared  the  most  holy 
intimacies  of  his  heart.  While  he  was 
always  feeding  others,  he  needed  himself 
to  be  fed.  While  he  poured  out  love  in 
constant  streams  to  bless  those  who  came 
to  him  with  their  cravings,  he  needed  to 
have  his  own  heart  warmed  and  filled 
continually  with  love's  inspirations. 

The  apostles  were  chosen  by  Christ  to 
be  with  him  in  the  inner  circle.  He 
chose    them    thoughtfully,     deliberately. 


,  -"    )  •  •  t 


TROUBLE   WAS   THE    KEY   TO    HIS    HEART. 


THE   MASTER'S    FRIENDSHIPS     19 

carefully.  It  was  after  they  had  been 
with  him  as  companions  and  followers 
for  months  that  he  selected  the  twelve 
from  the  larger  company  of  disciples, 
that  he  might  have  them  with  him  all 
the  time.  It  is  said,  too,  that  before  he 
chose  them  he  spent  the  whole  night 
in  prayer.  So  much  depended  on  this 
choice,  it  was  so  important  that  no 
mistake  should  be  made,  th^t  he  must 
have  his  Father's  approval  of  the  friends 
he  was  to  take  into  his  inner  life.  At  no 
time  do  we  more  need  divine  wisdom  in 
our  experience  than  when  we  are  decid- 
ing whether  or  not  we  shall  accept  this 
or  that  person  as  our  personal  friend. 
All  our  future  will  be  affected  by  the 
decision  and  all  our  life  colored  by  it. 
Many  a  career  is  blighted  by  a  hasty, 
prayerless  choice  of  a  friend. 

What   Christ  was  to  the   twelve  as   a 


20    THE   MASTER^S    FRIENDSHIPS 

friend  is  theme  great  enough  for  a  vol- 
ume. Think,  for  example,  what  he  was 
to  Peter.  Peter  came  to  him,  first,  a  man 
full  of  faults,  rude,  undisciplined,  un- 
lettered, rash,  and  impetuous.  Nobody 
ever  thought  of  the  old  fisherman  as  hav- 
ing any  promise  of  beauty  or  good,  or 
any  power  or  greatness  in  him.  But  the 
moment  Jesus  saw  him  he  said,  "Thou 
art  Simon  :  thou  shalt  be  called  Peter.'' 
He  saw  the  possibilities  in  this  man  of 
the  fishing-boat  —  possibilities  of  large- 
heartedness,  of  noble  leadership,  of  great 
influence,  of  apostleship.  We  know  what 
Peter  was  when  Christ  was  through  mak- 
ing him.  He  is  known  all  over  the 
world  to-day.  If  Christ  had  not  found 
him,  he  would  never  have  been  anything 
but  Simon,  a  rough,  swearing  fisherman, 
casting  his  nets  for  a  few  years  into  the 
Sea  of  Galilee,  then  dying  unhonored  and 


THE   MASTER^S    FRIENDSHIPS    21 

being  buried  in  an  unmarked  grave  by 
the  sea.  His  name  never  would  have 
been  known  in  the  world.  Think  what 
Peter  is  to-day  in  history,  in  influence 
upon  the  countless  millions  of  lives  that 
have  been  blessed  through  him.  All  this 
is  because  Christ  found  him  and  became 
his  friend. 

Think  what  Jesus  was  to  John.  John 
was  little  more  than  a  boy  when  he  first 
met  Jesus  that  afternoon  by  the  sea.  He, 
too,  was  a  fisherman.  We  do  not  know 
much  of  his  home  or  family.  It  is  gen- 
erally supposed  that  he  was  of  a  resentful 
disposition.  He  wished  to  call  down  fire 
from  heaven  on  a  Samaritan  village  that 
refused  shelter  to  Jesus  and  his  disciples. 
John  and  his  brother  James  were  called 
Boanerges,  **  Sons  of  thunder,"  the  name 
perhaps  indicating  the  vehemence  and 
the    severity   of    their    disposition.     Yet 


22    THE    MASTER^S    FRIENDSHIPS 

John  became  the  apostle  of  love.  He 
was  the  most  beloved  of  all  our  Lord's 
disciples.  He  lay  on  his  breast  at  the 
last  supper.  To  him  Jesus  entrusted  his 
mother  vv^hen  he  v^as  dying  on  the  cross. 
The  influence  of  John  in  the  Christian 
church  is  most  gentle  and  softening. 
Paul  has  far  more  to  say  in  his  epistles 
about  love  than  John  has  in  his  w^ritings, 
but  the  personality  of  John  as  it  lives  to- 
day in  the  world  has  made  an  atmosphere 
like  that  of  a  genial,  fragrant  summer,  an 
atmosphere  next  to  that  of  the  Master's 
own  name  and  life,  an  atmosphere  of  sweet- 
ness, of  love,  of  tenderness.  All  this  in 
the  John  we  know  the  friendship  of  Christ 
made  in  him.  John  lived  near  the  heart 
of  Christ  and  the  love  of  that  great  heart 
permeated  his  life  and  transformed  him. 

Always  the  friendship    of  Christ    dis- 
covered the  best  that  was  in  men.     He 


•  •  •     • 


JOHN    WAS    i,ITTLE    IMOKE    THAN    A    BOY    WHEN    HE    FIRST   MET    JESUS. 


THE   MASTER'S    FRIENDSHIPS    23 

saw  possibilities  in  them  that  no  other  one 
had  ever  dreamed  of.  Then  he  set  about 
to  develop  these  possibilities.  We  some- 
times commit  the  mistake  of  trying  to 
make  life  easy  for  our  friends.  We  think 
that  is  the  w^ay  to  show  our  best  kindness 
to  them.  We  seek  to  shelter  them  from 
every  rough  wind.  We  do  things  for 
them  to  relieve  them  and  to  save  them 
from  stress  and  strain.  We  carry  their 
loads  for  them.  This  seems  to  us  to  be 
friendship's  sacred  duty.  But  Jesus  was 
wiser  than  we  in  his  friendships.  He 
was  making  men,  and  ofttimes  it  was 
better  that  the  stress  should  not  be  les- 
sened, the  burden  not  lightened ;  that 
the  storm  should  be  allowed  to  blow  and 
the  struggle  to  go  on. 

"  As  the  mighty  poets  take 
Grief  and  pain  to  build  their  song, 
Whatso'er  its  lot  may  be,  — 


24    THE   MASTER^S    FRIENDSHIPS 

Building  as  the  heavens  roll, 
Something  large  and  strong  and  free,  — 
Things  that  hurt  and  things  that  mar 
Shape  the  man  for  perfect  praise ; 
Shock  and  strain  and  ruin  are 
Friendlier  than  the  smiling  days." 

Outside  the  disciple  family,  Jesus  had 
also  other  close  personal  friends.  Take 
the  members  of  the  Bethany  family  for 
illustration :  **  Jesus  loved  Martha,  and 
her  sister,  and  Lazarus.''  We  never  can 
understand  what  Jesus  was  to  this  home. 
The  record  shows  us  a  picture  of  his 
first  welcome  there.  The  writer  to  the 
Hebrews  exhorts  us  to  be  ready  to  enter- 
tain strangers,  and  then  reminds  us  that 
in  doing  so  some  have  hereby  entertained 
angels  unawares.  Better  than  this  was 
the  outcome  of  the  hospitality  of  Martha 
that  day  when  she  received  Jesus  Christ 
into  her  home,  —  she  entertained  the  Son 


THE    MASTER'S    FRIENDSHIPS    25 

of  God.  Mary  sat  at  the  feet  of  this 
holy  Guest  and  listened  to  his  wonderful 
talk,  and  we  never  can  know  what  those 
wonderful  words  meant  to  Mary's  life. 
They  transformed  her  into  marvelous 
spiritual  beauty. 

Paul  wrote  once  to  some  absent  friends 
that  he  longed  to  see  them,  that  he  might 
impart  to  them  some  spiritual  gift.  This 
was  a  lofty  wish  of  friendship.  It  sug- 
gests what  our  longing  for  our  meet- 
ings with  our  friends  should  be.  Jesus 
imparted  to  Mary  the  richest  spiritual 
gifts  in  the  visits  he  made  to  her.  If 
Christian  girls  and  women  knew  what 
this  divine  Friend  has  to  give  to  them, 
and  how  his  words  would  bless  them,  they 
would  sit  every  day  at  his  feet  and  listen 
while  he  talks  to  them.  No  other  cul- 
ture is  so  fine  as  that  which  comes  from 
communion  with  Jesus  Christ. 


26    THE    MASTER'S    FRIENDSHIPS 

In  this  home  at  Bethany  we  see  what 
Christ's  friendship  did  in  the  day  of 
sorrow.  The  brother  fell  very  sick. 
Jesus  was  away  at  the  time.  A  messen- 
ger was  sent  to  tell  him,  "  He  whom 
thou  lovest  is  sick.''  We  would  suppose 
that  he  would  start  instantly,  to  get  to  his 
friends,  in  their  trouble,  at  the  earliest 
possible  moment,  but  the  record  reads 
strangely  indeed :  "  When  therefore  he 
heard  that  he  was  sick,  he  abode  at  that 
time  two  days  in  the  place  where  he 
was."  "  Therefore"  — because  he  loved 
Martha  and  Mary  and  Lazarus,  he  waited 
two  days  after  hearing  of  his  friend's  ill- 
ness before  he  started  to  their  home. 
Notice  it  was  because  he  loved  them  that 
he  delayed.  Some  day  when  you  are  in 
sorrow  or  trouble  and  send  for  Christ,  he 
may  delay  to  come,  delay  till  it  seems  too 
late  to  come  at    all.     Remember,    then. 


•^      >    •      •     a 

u  •  •     •        •  J 
,      '•     •         •       • 


♦.     »  • 


PETER    WAS    A    ROUGH    FISHERMAN'. 


THE    MASTER^S    FRIENDSHIPS    27 

that  it  is  because  he  loves  you  and  yours 
that  he  delays.  We  must  learn  to  trust 
Christ's  friendship  even  v^hen  it  seems  to 
fail  us.  We  must  wait  till  w^e  see  the 
end  of  his  dealing  with  us. 

The  story  of  this  Bethany  sorrow, 
when  finished,  left  no  disappointment. 
The  moment  Jesus  came  was  just  at  the 
right  moment.  There  was  no  failure  in 
his  friendship.  He  was  not  indifferent 
or  neglectful  when  he  waited.  There  was 
just  the  same  love  in  his  delaying  as  there 
was  at  the  last  when  he  came.  It  will 
always  be  so  in  Christ's  dealing  with  you. 
Scarcely  a  day  passes  but  some  one  speaks 
of  the  strange  mystery  of  some  sorrow. 
"  How  can  Christ  love  me  and  not  come 
to  me  with  relief  in  my  distress?"  He 
does  love  you.  It  is  just  because  he  loves 
you  that  he  does  not  answer  you  as  you 
thought  he  would,  —  he  has  a  better  way. 


28    THE    MASTER'S    FRIENDSHIPS 

Then  in  the  end  the  blessing  he  gives 
is  far  greater  than  if  he  had  taken  your 
way.  We  may  be  glad  we  don't  have  to 
understand. 

"  In  the  center  of  the  circle 
Of  the  will  of  God  I  stand: 
Where  can  come  no  second  causes. 
All  must  come  from  his  dear  hand. 
All  is  well !  for  'tis  my  Father 
Who  my  life  hath  planned. 

"  Shall  I  pass  through  waves  of  sorrow  ? 
When  I  know  it  will  be  best. 
Though  I  cannot  tell  the  reason 
I  can  trust  and  so  am  blest. 
God  is  love,  and  God  is  faithful. 
So  in  perfect  peace  I  rest. 

"  With  the  shade  and  with  the  sunshine ; 
With  the  joy  and  with  the  pain ; 
Lord,  I  trust  thee  !  both  are  needed 
Each  Thy  wayward  child  to  train. 
Earthly  loss,  did  we  but  know  it, 
Ofttimes  means  our  heavenly  gain/* 


THE    MASTER'S    FRIENDSHIPS    29 

Some  people  read  the  story  of  the  life 
of  Christ  as  a  bit  of  ancient  history.  It 
happened  nearly  two  thousand  years  ago. 
They  wish  that  they  had  lived  in  that 
golden  age  of  the  world  when  Jesus  was 
here  among  men.  But  this  story  is  far 
more  than  a  story  of  the  past.  And  it  is 
just  as  true  to-day  as  it  was  then  that 
Christ  has  his  house  by  the  side  of  the 
road  and  is  a  friend  to  men.  The  most 
wonderful  and  the  most  real  thing  in  the 
world  now  is  the  friendship  of  Christ. 
We  cannot  see  him.  We  say,  "  If  I 
could  see  him  as  I  see  my  human  friend, 
I  would  take  him  as  my  friend  and  trust 
him."  Have  you  ever  thought  that 
human  friendship,  too,  is  a  matter  of 
faith,  not  of  sight?  You  cannot  see  in 
your  friend  that  which  you  trust.  The 
qualities  in  him  which  mean  so  much  to 
you  are  invisible.     They  are  qualities  of 


30    THE    MASTER'S    FRIENDSHIPS 

his  heart.  They  are  not  his  physical 
beauty,  his  cuhure,  his  money,  his  gifts, 
his  position.  The  things  you  trust  are 
his  truth,  his  manliness,  his  honor,  his 
faithfulness,  his  thoughtfulness,  his  gentle- 
ness, —  and  you  cannot  see  these.  You 
cannot  be  with  your  friend  all  the  while 
to  see  with  your  own  eyes  that  he  is 
always  loyal  to  you.  You  do  not  watch 
your  friend  to  see  that  he  is  good  and  true 
and  faithful  wherever  he  goes.  You  do 
not  set  spies  to  follow  him  in  all  his 
absences  from  you.  Yet  you  never  doubt 
him.  Evil  tongues  may  whisper  foul  in- 
sinuations about  him,  but  you  refuse  to  be- 
lieve them.  Even  if  you  learn  evil  things 
about  him,  things,  too,  that  appear  to  be 
true,  you  still  stand  by  him.  There  must 
be  some  mistake,  you  say.  These  things 
cannot  be  true.  You  believe  in  your 
friend    and    you     trust    him    absolutely. 


THE    MASTER'S    FRIENDSHIPS    31 

Your  friendship  is   not  of  sight,   but  of 
faith. 

Can  we  not  believe  also  in  the  same 
way  in  Christ  and  in  his  friendships  ? 
Can  we  not  love  him  whom  we  have 
not  seen  ?  A  sorrow  comes ;  you  cannot 
understand  it.  But  why  must  you  under- 
stand ?  Indeed,  in  almost  every  case  we 
would  be  far  happier  if  we  did  not  try 
to  understand  things.  Dr.  Robertson 
Nicoll  says :  "  There  are  some  very  de- 
vout people  who  know  far  too  much. 
They  can  explain  the  whole  secret  of  pain 
and  evil  and  death  in  the  world.  They 
prate  about  the  mystery  of  things  as 
though  they  were  God's  spies.  It  is  far 
humbler  and  more  Christian  to  admit 
that  we  do  not  fully  discern  a  reason  and 
method  in  this  long,  slow  tragedy  of 
human  existence."  You  remember  that 
Jesus    himself  said,    "  I  have    yet    many 


32    THE    MASTER'S    FRIENDSHIPS 

things  to  say  unto  you,  but  ye  cannot  bear 
them  now."  Some  day  we  shall  have  all 
the  mysteries  made  known,  but  now  is  it 
not  enough"^  for  us  to  know  that  Christ  is 
our  Friend  ?  He  understands.  Our  lives 
are  safe  in  his  keeping.  Nothing  ever 
goes  wrong  if  we  are  living  with  him. 

We  have  hints  and  glimpses  in  the  New 
Testament  story  of  what  Christ's  friend- 
ship meant  to  those  who  accepted 
it  when  they  knew  him  as  a  man, 
even  though  there  was  so  much  mystery 
in  it,  so  much  that  seemed  severe,  want- 
ing in  sympathy,  in  kindness.  In  the 
end  all  became  plain,  and  then  there 
was  love  in  every  line.  It  is  the  same 
to-day. 

Let  us  seek,  then,  to  believe  in  and 
realize  the  friendship  of  Christ,  just  as 
Peter  did,  just  as  John  did,  just  as  Martha 
and  Mary  did.      It  is  as  real  to  us  as   it 


•w     .•••..    •• 


HE   SPENT   THE   WHOLE    NIGHT   IN    PRAYER. 


THE   MASTER'S    FRIENDSHIPS    33 

was  to  them.  The  fact  that  he  has 
passed  into  heaven  does  not  make  his 
friendship  any  the  less  close  or  tender, 
nor  the  less  human.  It  will  mean  just 
as  much  to  us  as  it  did  to  them.  What, 
for  example,  would  Matthew,  the  publi- 
can, ever  have  been  if  Christ  had  not 
become  his  friend  ?  Only  a  hated  tax- 
collector,  a  sordid,  greedy,  grasping  Jew. 
Christ  made  him  a  man,  a  big-hearted 
man,  an  unselfish,  loving  man,  then  an 
apostle,  the  writer  of  a  Gospel,  whose 
name  shines  over  all  Christendom.  The 
friendship  of  Christ  will  make  every  man 
who  accepts  it  noble  and  strong.  None 
will  ever  reach  their  best  till  he  lifts 
them  up  to  it. 

As  friends  and  followers  of  Christ,  it 
is  ours  to  repeat  his  friendships  on  the 
earth,  to  be  to  others  in  our  way  and 
measure  what  he  has  been   to    us.      We 


34    THE    MASTER'S    FRIENDSHIPS 

should  build  our  house  by  the  side  of  the 
road  where  people  throng  and  surge  and 
be  a  friend  to  men.  They  need  us  — 
they  need  love  and  sympathy  and  help. 
The  other  day  a  request  came  from  one 
of  our  hospitals  for  the  sending  of  a 
birthday  letter  to  a  nurse.  Other  friends 
were  also  in  the  secret.  The  nurse  was 
far  from  home  and  was  dreadfully  home- 
sick. Then  in  her  secluded  and  narrow 
circumstances  she  had  never  had  the  op- 
portunity to  know  the  brighter,  sweeter 
things  of  love,  which  many  Christian 
women  have  known  in  their  wider  life 
in  the  gentle  homes  of  their  childhood 
and  girlhood.  Everything  that  thought- 
ful love  could  do  for  this  girl  was  done 
by  the  friends  who  were  determined  to 
make  the  day  one  she  never  would  for- 
get. Next  day  she  wrote  to  a  friend  in 
glowing  words  of  what  her  birthday  had 


THE    MASTER'S    FRIENDSHIPS    35 

been  to  her  in  happiness  and  what  it  had 
done  for  her  in  the  way  of  love's  reveal- 
ing. She  said  she  could  not  express  her 
gladness.  She  had  never  known  before 
what  love  meant.  That  day  began  a 
new  epoch  in  her  life,  something  like 
the  new  epoch  which  must  have  begun 
in  Mary's  life  the  day  she  sat  first  at 
the  feet  of  Jesus  and  heard  his  words. 

The  world  is  full  of  people  who  are 
just  as  hungry-hearted  as  was  this  child 
from  the  South,  who  know  just  as  little 
of  the  sweet  and  beautiful  things  of  love, 
and  to  whom  a  gracious,  cheerful  kind- 
ness will  be  a  revealing  of  Christ,  which 
will  make  all  things  new  for  them. 
Those  of  us  who  have  been  most  highly 
favored,  who  have  known  much  of  love 
and  love's  sweet  revealings,  who  have 
had  many  friends  to  brighten  our  lives  in 
all  circumstances,  cannot  understand  the 


36    THE   MASTER^S    FRIENDSHIPS 

emptiness  of  many  lives  which  do  not 
know  anything  whatever  of  the  meaning 
of  sweet  human  affection,  who  really 
never  have  had  a  friend.  There  are 
many  who  have  scarcely  ever  received  a 
real  kindness  in  their  whole  life.  To 
such  it  is  a  holy  hour  when  one  says  to 
them,  **  I  am  going  to  be  your  friend.'' 
A  teacher  said  this  to  a  boy  who  had 
never  heard  such  a  word  before.  His 
lot  was  most  dreary.  He  had  been  badly 
treated,  receiving  only  hard  knocks,  hear- 
ing only  sharp  and  bitter  words,  no  one 
ever  having  said  to  him  anything  gentle. 
When  this  teacher,  his  heart  touched  by 
the  boy's  forlorn  loneliness,  laid  his  hand 
on  his  shoulder  and  looking  into  his  sad 
face,  said,  "  Cheer  up,  my  boy,  I  am 
going  to  be  your  friend,"  it  was  as  if 
Christ  himself  had  spoken  to  him.  A 
new  light  flashed  into  the  boy's  face  as 


THE  MASTER'S  FRIENDSHIPS  zi 
he  looked  up  eagerly  a  little  later  and 
said,  "  Did  you  mean  what  you  said  to 
me  a  moment  ago  —  that  you  would  be 
my  friend?  If  you  are  going  to  be  my 
friend,  I  can  be  a  man/'  That  was  what 
the  friendship  of  Christ  meant  to  his 
disciples,  and  there  are  many  people  all 
about  us,  to  whom  we  can  bring  uplift- 
ing, widening,  and  enlarging  of  life,  and 
for  whom  we  can  make  the  world  new 
simply  by  becoming  their  friend. 

There  are  certain  times  when  our 
friends  are  apt  to  think  there  is  no  need 
for  their  keeping  near  us  or  letting  us 
know  they  think  of  us  or  remember  us. 
"  Friendship  will  shine  out  when  the 
roads  are  rough,  and  the  fare  is  scant,  and 
the  winds  are  chill,  and  the  great,  hard 
desolation  settles  down  upon  life.  Then 
friendship  is  the  stay  and  furtherance  of 
the  soul.''     But  there  come  times  in  our 


38    THE    MASTER^S    FRIENDSHIPS 

lives  when  we  seem  to  have  no  need. 
All  things  are  bright  about  us,  there  are 
no  shadows  over  us,  we  have  no  trouble, 
and  we  are  not  in  any  distress.  Our 
friends  are  as  true  and  faithful  to  us  then 
as  ever,  but  they  do  not  come  to  us  with 
assurance  of  friendship,  with  sympathy  or 
with  help,  —  there  seems  no  need.  But 
really  we  need  our  friends  then  too, — 
we  need  them  at  all  times.  There  is 
never  a  day  when  it  will  not  do  us  good 
to  have  our  friends  tell  us  of  their  love 
and  stand  close  to  us  in  gentle  affection. 
The  common  saying  is,  "  A  friend  in 
need  is  a  friend  indeed,''  but  there  is 
always  need  for  friendship.  Henry  Van 
Dyke  puts  it  well :  — 

"  A  friend  In  need,"  my  neighbor  said  to  me  — 
"  A  friend,  indeed,  is  what  I  mean  to  be : 
In  time  of  trouble  I  will  come  to  you. 
And  in  the  hour  of  need  you  '11  find  me  true." 


THE    MASTER'S   FRIENDSHIPS    39 

I  thought  a  bit,  and  took  him  by  the  hand : 
"  My  friend/'  said  I,  "  you  do  not  understand 
The  inner  meaning  of  that  simple  rhyme  — 
A  friend  is  what  the  heart  needs  all  the  time." 

Every  day,  every  hour,  is  a  time  of 
need  with  us.  We  may  not  need  certain 
forms  of  actual  help  all  the  while,  but 
there  is  never  a  time  when  we  do  not  need 
love,  sympathy,  cheer;  when  we  do  not 
need  to  be  thought  about,  when  we  do 
not  need  the  consciousness  of  one  stand- 
ing by.  It  is  not  material  help  that 
ordinarily  means  most  to  us;  it  is  the 
knowledge  that  we  have  the  friend,  that 
he  is  ours  and  that  he  will  be  ready  and 
true,  that,  turn  to  him  when  we  may  we 
shall  always  find  him  close  beside  us, 
strong  and  wise,  a  rock  in  the  weary  land. 
Many  of  the  sweetest  and  truest  manifes- 
tations of  friendship  are  made  in  almost 
imperceptible    ways  —  a    look,    a   smile. 


40    THE   MASTER^S    FRIENDSHIPS 

some  simple  thoughtfulness,  an  expres- 
sion of  sympathy  which  is  scarcely  con- 
scious, a  kindness  done  in  silence,  with- 
out any  mention.  Ofttimes  friendship's 
best  service  is  rendered  when  there  would 
seem  to  be  no  need.  Destinies  have  been 
changed  by  a  word  or  a  kindness  when 
all  seemed  bright.  It  is  thus  the  friend- 
ship of  Christ  serves  us,  not  only  when 
we  are  crying  for  help,  but  also  when 
we  seem  to  have  all  things,  lacking 
nothing. 

The  friendship  of  Christ  never  fails. 
Much  of  the  failure  of  human  friendship 
is  negative  —  in  not  doing  the  things  that 
ought  to  have  been  done.  We  are  not 
unkind  to  our  friends,  but  we  are  not 
kind.  We  do  nothing  to  harm  them, 
but  neither  do  we  do  the  things  which 
would  do  them  good.  "I  was  hungry, 
and  ye  did  not  give  me  to  eat ;   ...  I  was 


THE    LIGHT    OF    OUR    HEARTS,    OF    OUR    HORIES. 


THE   MASTER^S   FRIENDSHIPS    41 

a  stranger,  and  ye  took  me  not  in/'  We 
remember  that  most  pathetic  experience 
of  Christ's,  when  his  heart  hungered  for 
the  love  and  sympathy  his  friends  could 
have  given  him,  but  failed  to  give.  Again 
and  again  he  came  to  them  in  his  agony 
and  found  them  asleep.  Do  our  friends 
in  hours  of  bitterness  and  longing  for  love 
ever  come  to  us  hoping  for  sympathy,  and 
find  us  sleeping  ?  Or  do  those  who  are  to 
us  God's  angels  of  ministering  love,  year 
after  year,  fail  of  appreciation  by  us  till 
they  have  finished  their  serving  of  us  and 
slipped  away  ?  Life  for  all  of  us  is  full  of 
opportunities  for  being  kind,  for  showings 
the  friendship  of  Christ,  but  how  many 
of  us  fail  to  note  the  opportunities,  to 
understand  the  needs,  the  heart-hungers, 
and  to  be  the  friend  in  need ! 

There    is    a    personal    question    which 
concerns    every    one    of  us.       "  Do   you 


42    THE   MASTER'S    FRIENDSHIPS 

know  the  friendship  of  Christ  ? ''  He  is 
your  friend  —  no  other  human  being  is 
to  you  the  friend  Christ  is.  He  loves 
you,  he  knows  your  needs,  he  longs  to 
help  you.  He  longs  to  save  you  from 
your  faults,  he  longs  to  make  your  life 
mean  more  to  you.  He  stands  at  the 
door  of  your  heart  and  knocks,  and  wants 
to  enter  in  to  fill  you  with  love.  Do  you 
know  Christ  as  your  friend?  Into  your 
life  have  come  human  friendships  which 
have  meant  a  great  deal  to  you.  Some 
one  asked  Charles  Kingsley  the  secret  of 
his  life  of  beauty,  of  love  of  gentle- 
ness, of  service.  He  answered,  *^  I 
had  a  friend."  Have  you  not  had  a 
friend,  a  rare  human  friend,  who  has 
enriched  your  life  in  countless  ways? 
Do  you  know  the  friendship  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  you  know  that  of  this  human 
friend  ? 


THE    MASTER'S   FRIENDSHIPS    43 

"One  there  is  above  all  others 

Well  deserves  the  name  of  Friend  ; 
His  is  love  beyond  a  brother's, 
Costly,  free  and  knows  no  end." 


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